Bread is low key the highlight of your meal.
“While bread is widely viewed as a way to entertain your palate before the meal, at certain U.S restaurant chains, the bread can actually be considered to be the highlight of the meal.
There are two well known examples of restaurants in particular that use this strategy- Red Lobster and Olive Garden.Red Lobster is known for their so called Cheddar Bay Biscuits, which draws a steady stream of customers in spite having a reputation for mediocre seafood. Many people consider the biscuits to be their favorite part of the meal.
Olive Garden meanwhile is known for endless breadsticks. Both restaurants provide good bread to distract customers from the fact that the rest of their food isn’t all that great.
Basically serving memorable bread in both of the cases that I listed above has helped these restaurants become the number one sit down seafood and Italian restaurant respectively.”
Just in case your meal actually sucks…you will still be full.
“In chain restaurants I the US, who boast of endless bread sticks, they serve to fill the diners up. Americans sadly equate how full you are when you leave with the value of the meal. If an entrée leaves you still hungry, you are not likely to return. So the chain restaurants fill the diners up, with inexpensive butter laden bread, bread sticks, or salad. Mexican restaurants do the same thing with chips and salsa, or queso.”
Wheat is just so versatile.
“Growing wheat is the easiest of the produces in the agriculture world, and a really large population of the world can keep going by just consuming wheat products. Growing wheat does not need as much water as many other crops such as rice. Wheat can be stored for really long times~Up to years if kept in safe environment. Wheat can be very easily crushed and mixed to dough, which can be very easily converted to bread. Bread has probably most number of forms available in the world. Many different cultures create breads of different kinds.”
And if you don’t leave with a full stomach, you won’t return!
“My parents have always pointed out to me (my whole entire life,so it’s stuck with me) that when a restaurant gives you an unlimited amount of something for free (breadsticks) or includes it in the price of your meal (drink refills, dessert on the buffet, etc.), you’re more likely to leave the restaurant with a full stomach.”
So much bread isn’t meant to fill you up:
“Interestingly, I recently heard a report on NPR about this – turns out that, counter intuitively, eating bread before a meal may cause you to eat *more* not just because of the bread calories, but because it spikes your blood sugar, and the ensuing sugar crash will make you more hungry for your meal.”